Number of Cleveland firefighters calling off sick mid-shift plummets after city requires doctor's note

View full sizeLynn Ischay, The Plain DealerCleveland firefighters battle a blaze on the city's East Side.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- During the five months between December 2010 and May 2011, the city of Cleveland paid firefighters for 6,544 hours of emergency overtime to cover for colleagues who called off sick after they had already shown up and begun working their 24-hour shifts.

And in each case, in keeping with the firefighters union contract and the department's general orders, the city paid the sick firefighter for the entire six-hour quarter during which he or she began to work and thencalled off -- even if illness struck minutes into the quarter.

Safety Director Martin Flask said in an interview last week that between Dec. 12 and May 12, firefighters called off for 1,980 hours, amounting to a 70 percent decline. The number of hours called off during full-day shifts since Jan. 1 also dropped to 1,435 from 1,637 during the same time span last year.

Flask said the new order has had its desired effect -- deterring one of numerous payroll policy abuses that a series of city audits identified within the fire department during the past year. The same audits made headlines when they revealed that some firefighters had gamed the system for years, manipulating shift trade policies that allowed them to collect their full salaries while paying others to work their shifts.

Fire union President Frank Szabo did not return calls for comment this week.

Employees in other city departments earn 120 hours of sick time per year. City policy dictates that if an employee becomes ill after the start of a shift, he or she will be paid only for time worked to the nearest 6-minute increment. The rest of the day is deducted from the employee's sick-time allowance.

But the firefighters' union contract and department policiesbreak their 24-hour shifts into six-hour blocks called quarters. The city must payfirefighters for each quarter during which they work, even if they go home sickonly minutes into the quarter. Their sick time allotments arereduced for quarters of their shifts they miss entirely.

Auditors noted in March that often, firefighters went home sick at the beginning of the quarters.

"While this was within the current FIRE policy, the pattern suggests the firefighters are waiting until the new quarter to strike off in order to reduce the sick hours charged to their benefit balance, rather than leaving when they are sick," the audit stated.

Records related to the audit highlighted numerous examples of firefighters seemingly waiting to call off work until just after 2:30 p.m. -- the start of the second quarter of the day. On Christmas Eve 2010, six firefighters from the same battalion called off sick between 2:30 and 3 p.m. and were paid for the rest of the quarter, the records show.

The audit recommended that city officials review the issue during the next cycle of collective bargaining and consider crafting a new policy that conforms to that followed by other city employees. The same suggestion had been made by auditors in 2009.

Flask said the city made a number of proposals to the union while negotiating the most recent contract, which was ratified last April. Among those proposals was "hour-for-hour" sick leave versus paying in six-hour increments.

"The negotiations, however, failed to achieve a consensus," Flask said. "These and others will be brought back to the table during the next round of negotiations."

In the meantime, Flask said he is pleased with the effect of the new order, which was issued in November, requiring documentation to support a mid-shift absence.

Flask said that to deter firefighters from abusing the strike-off policy, the city decided to dock pay for those who fail to bring in documentation, rather than simply count the absence against the firefighter's sick time allowance. So far, the threat has worked, he said. Only one firefighter failed to document his excuse and lost wages, he said.

The union took up that firefighter's case in a still-pendinggrievance demanding the order be rescinded because it is unreasonable and out of line with previously negotiated rules that only required a doctor's note if a firefighter was injured on the job, was identified as having used excessive sick time or was off more than three shifts or 72 hours in a row.

The rules also require documentation if time is taken because a family member was ill.

Then-fire union leader Lt. Thomas Lally told the city in the grievance that short-term absences have never required physicians' certificates. And that the doctors' notes were necessary in the past to ensure firefighters could safely return to duty.

"The intent of the orders is to deter and punish members from using contractual sick leave benefits by propounding an illogical, unnecessary, and unreasonable requirement to see a doctor for a minor, short-term illness," Lally wrote.

Lally said it would be impossible for firefighters to prove they were suffering from a garden-variety illness without seeing a doctor at their own expense.

Flask said the grievance is scheduled for arbitration in August. The city will continue enforcing the new policy until an arbitrator advises otherwise, he said.